Now that you have planned your landscape project, picked out and planted your shrubs or trees and they are established. Next you will want to take care of them and this will require knowing some of the basics and learning some insider tips will help your shrub or tree reach its full potential.
While both shrubs and trees add texture, color and structure to your landscape. They are an essential component to your landscape, as they create focal points for your landscape and the good news is that taking care of your shrubs or trees is relatively an easy task. Hopefully, you either kept the tags or wrote down the care instructions for your shrub or tree. Whether your plant was container grown or bare root grown, each will have different care requirements and routine maintenance of your shrubs and trees are a key factor for healthy growth. Part of that maintenance includes pruning, but what do you prune and when? Another part of that maintenance is feeding or fertilizing your shrubs or trees to insure that the soil has the proper nutrients it needs. Also a watering program will be needed, along with mulching are just some of the basics. Due to the vast amount and variations of shrubs and trees, we will add more blogs covering various pruning tips, fertilizing and soil care, watering, along with which tools to use for each pruning project.

Sitting in the office on this bitter cold winter morning and thinking about this years spring projects, while searching the various plant selections, landscaping trends, other various products and equipment and thinking about the coming Home & Garden Shows as we head into the 2017 landscaping season.
There are so many plants, shrubs and variations of each, one could spend hours/ days searching and dreaming about which ones plants or shrubs to choose and the possibility adding veggies and creating a edible garden. Will your new garden have a live natural edge, a stone border, border plants (whether annuals or perennials) or possibly a raised box garden, one could even add a decorative concrete border.
Will there be children/ pets to consider when planning your new gardens or landscape projects. Their are so many ideas to rummage through and factors to consider during the planning process, one could be easily overwhelmed with all the information out there. But, don’t worry, we have plenty of time still to search and sift thru the many plants/ shrubs and stone choices during planning process before spring.
We would encourage everyone to get out to the Home & Garden Shows, talk to your local nurseries and garden clubbers for ideas and answers to any questions you may have.

Do you compost?
One of the best thing you can do for your garden is to save all the scraps, grass clippings, leaves, weeds and spent plant materials. Pile them up and allow them to slowly decompose, they transform into a rich, dark soil called “black gold” by many gardeners. Spread on your garden soil, it adds nutrients and improves the structure of your soil, resulting in healthier plants.
Just a friendly reminder when starting a Compost Bin is that not everything can be put into your compost pile.
What things should be put in a composting bin?
Fresh Plant Materials:
Include weeds you pull from your gardens, as well as grass clippings when you mow your lawn. The plants left after harvesting vegetables such as green beans, peas, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers can be included in the pile. Also include kitchen trimmings from fruits and vegetables, as well as coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells. Do not include bones, meats or oils.
Dried Plant Materials:
Add dried plant materials at a volume of approximately one-half the volume of green plant materials added to your compost. Include dried autumn leaves, stalks of ornamental grass when you cut it down in spring and any other plant material that has dried up. Large pieces like the stalks of sunflowers, corn cobs or woody twigs will break down faster if they are chopped up or put through a shredder, although it isn’t absolutely necessary.
Also, shredded paper, cardboard, office paper and newspapers without colored ink can all be added to the compost pile. Count shredded paper or cardboard as part of the total volume of dried plant materials.

Bark mulch provides the perfect backdrop for a beautiful and productive garden. Bark mulch comes in a variety of natural and color-enhanced varieties, allowing you the option to choose the color mulch that creates the perfect backdrop for your garden and landscape.